He was a good little buddy. I’m off to the pet store to get a new roommate for Lucky.
Best wishes,
Jerry
Aw, Jerry, I’m so sorry for your loss. I know how much you love your little friends. 
I hope that Lucky’s roommate is as wonderful a compliment to your household as Jack was.
it is always sad when they have to leave.
I was, in fact, able to find Lucky a fine new roommate.
He seems quite a remarkable little fellow, and he and Lucky are already best friends, both clearly as happy as can be with their interesting new circumstances.
No name yet, but this little five week old fancy pattern (black hood and stripe, white belly and paws) baby rat is about the cutest thing you ever saw. It may take awhile to get pictures, but I’ll try.
The pet store lady left me with two aquaria full of baby rats to sort through while she attended other customers. These animals had been bred there in the store, hardly handled at all, very wiggly, jumpy little critters. As I was picking up one and then another, trying to keep them from springing out of my hands, one rat came close, stood on his hind paws and looked me over, very inquisitive and showing no fear.
I put my hand near him, and he came over and inspected it with much interest. I picked him up, and he tried to wiggle out of my hands like the others, but he seemed not to be nearly as spooked. As I continued to handle him, he settled down very fast, and within five or ten minutes was completely hand tame. He wasn’t the color pattern I had in mind, but clearly, this was the rat I was supposed to take home.
On the way home, I took the corrugated filing box containing Lucky and his new roommate to all the places Lucky likes to visit, the Agway store, the hardware store, the convenience store/gas station (whose employees had only met Lucky earlier in the day), to my friend Marty who got me interested in rats in the first place and finally, to see little Levi Herschberger at the Amish farm down the road.
Wherever we went, everyone was enchanted, and I was astonished by how personable the little new guy is. He was held and petted by ten or fifteen different people and showed no skittishness whatsoever. He clearly enjoyed himself the whole time, often purring contentedly as he was petted, in the way rats do.
Little Levi told me he would like a rat for himself, and he told me something about a duck, which I had a hard time getting straight because of his strong Amish Germanic accent.
Eventually I figured out he was telling me that the female duck who lives on the stream that runs by their house and hadn’t left for the winter because she had gotten used to Levi feeding her, had found her way into the woodshed. Caroline, the matriarch of the household, would have nothing of this because a duck in the woodshed would poop on the wood, which she uses for cooking. So Levi managed to entice the duck to follow him into the chicken coop.
I discussed this with Levi’s father, Ruben, who said, “We’ll have to see how the duck works out with the chickens,” expressing uncertainty about whether the chickens would peck the duck. I asked him if I could see the duck, and we went, flashlights in hand, to the chicken coop (by now it was after dark).
As Ruben opened the chicken coop door, I saw a funny sight.
There, at one end on the lowest level, was the duck, looking dapper, comfortable and well settled, if somewhat annoyed by our intrusion. The chicken coop is long and narrow, one wall outfitted with long perches for the chickens like bleachers at a ball game. All the chickens were pressed together in close formation against the other end of the rows of perches, as far away as they could get from the duck.
“I think they’re afraid of the duck,” Ruben said, and again, “We’ll have to see how the duck works out.”
Best wishes,
Jerry
Oh, yeah. One more thing.
While I was in the pet store, I discovered the answer to something I had wondered about.
The answer is twelve.
Now, what’s the question?
Best wishes,
Jerry
Thanks to those blasted Vogons, we’ll have to build another computer to calculate the question!
The number of times you have to ask the assistant before you actually get served?
Glad you got a new friend, Jerry, your new rat sounds lovely. It was a treat to hear about the duck, too.
Answer: 12
Question: How many teats does a rat have?
Ladies and gentlemen,
We have a winner.
Best wishes,
Jerry
In the future, always quarantine the new animal before introduction:
Hi, Jack.
Yes, I’m aware of all that.
There’s more involved than just germs. Two weeks without a roommate would be a hardship for Lucky. Two weeks without Lucky to keep him warm in this cool house could kill Patches (that’s what I’ve named him). Introducing a male rat becomes more risky with each week that the juvenile rat matures.
My experience with Lucky and Jack has been that one or both of them could get a respiratory infection and no amount of antibiotics would clear it up. Then, figuring out a way to keep them warmer would cure them in hours (literally). I’ve one good cage that I know is exactly warm enough, and I’ve done everything in my power to make sure these rats do well.
Best wishes,
Jerry
I dropped by the Herschbergers this evening and learned that the duck didn’t work out with the chickens. It seems the chickens never got over being afraid of her and didn’t lay as many eggs.
So they moved the duck to the barn, which didn’t suit her, and she disappeared.
“I think we’ll see her again when she’s hungry,” said Reuben.
Caroline told me, the duck didn’t just show up in the woodshed. Twice, Caroline opened the back door, which connects with the woodshed, and found the duck standing there waiting for her.
“I don’t want a duck in the house,” she said.
Best wishes,
Jerry
I can get behind that. Ducks are messy, and they raid the catfood.